


𝐒𝐓♢𝐑𝐘𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄

by Someone_stole_my_username



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dreamtale (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Inktale (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Storyshift (Undertale), Chara (Undertale) Needs a Hug, Doodle Sphere, F/M, Female Chara, Inktale Sans (Undertale), I’ll add tags as I go, Multiverse Shenanigans, Nonbinary Frisk (Undertale), Other tags to be added, Tags May Change, and mental help, cause I feel like it’s cheating otherwise, inkshift chara (undertale), its called storyverse, snow puff (undertale), what did you expect?, yes that’s a tag now
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-14 14:00:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28921713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Someone_stole_my_username/pseuds/Someone_stole_my_username
Summary: They paused mid step, their non-Existent eyes wide with both wonder and fear as they looked at the mess before them.It was hard to decipher who or what could have done this, or even what this was. After all, the mass assortment of AU’s before them clearly wasn’t the doing of either Ink or Error, or any other outcode for that matter.So who was responsible for this?Fortunately, Core had a feeling that they wouldn’t have to wait very long to find out.*WARNING THIS STORY CONTAINS NON-CANON ELEMENTS OF STORYSHIFT*
Relationships: Chara & Sans (Undertale), Chara/Sans (Undertale), if you squint
Comments: 5
Kudos: 9





	1. -First light-

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If Sans didn’t need mental help before, he does now.

The first thought that actually stuck with Chara in her half conscious mind was more of an observation than a thought and was something along the lines of,  _ wow, it’s cold. _

the second one almost immediately after was ‘ _ well who would of guessed, I’m dead’ _

Just like everything else the details of how exactly she died were fuzzy, although she vaguely remembered clutching at her bleeding gut as sunlight shone brilliantly through a golden corridor. A place where her death would have been peaceful if it was under almost any other circumstance.

Or maybe it was just because said circumstances had been a knife coated with her brother's dust and welded by a sadistic child with a lust for dust, or blood in her case.

_ Frisk _ her mind supplied much to Chara’s dismay. She was sure she would have cringed at the image of the kid she had once considered a friend if she still had a body. Did she still have a body? Or Was she just a mass of cohesive thoughts floating through an endless void? It was hard to tell and Chara couldn’t decide if she even wanted to know. The thought that she was nothing but her pulsing soul trapped somewhere between time and space was just as terrifying as it was jarring

_ Or maybe she was still in the judgment hall, her thoughts nothing but a flickering memory in her dying brain.  _

Wherever she was, one thing was for certain.

  
  
  


It was so, s o,  _ c o l d. _

  
  
  


In truth, this wasn’t exactly what Chara had been expecting, whenever she thought about the afterlife she always pictured the buttercups that grew under the barrier, the rare sunlight giving them an almost magical feel. she imagined just staying in the peaceful place, Completely Content with lying in the bed of golden flowers for the rest of her not-life.

But that was before the resets,  _ before blookie,  _ when she had still believed that life wasn’t something that could be ripped from you in a matter of seconds. 

_ Back when death was permanent rather than a split second of darkness she experienced before she woke up to do it all again  _

Funny, It never occurred to her before that frisk would eventually get bored of this endless cycle and just leave everyone dead. Chara had always thought that no matter the monsters who would dust, she would always wake up in the same bed to start the the day again in what could only be described as her own personal hell.

at the very least she thought she’d be able to Asriel one last time...

But this? This wasn’t any of that, hell it was worse than a reset. it was just her, cold and alone somewhere -witch was probably actually nowhere now that she thought about it- and it was all the fault of that d i r t y b r o t h e r k i l l e r.

And than she felt it.

_ She felt? Wasn’t she dead? S h e w a s s u p p o s e d t o b e d e a d !’ _

The cold nearly burning her as her finger tips dug into the snow-

_ ‘Snow? Where was she? Did the kid reset? H o w ?’ _

She hastily scrambled to push herself up, ignoring the painful protest her muscles gave as she did so. Chara pushed against the snow that she had just realized encompassed her, never before so thankful that she wore a hoodie, even if it didn’t offer much warmth. Something cold rubbed against her palms, and she nearly flinchd as it came in contact with her bare hands, that was definitely snow-

All of a sudden she broke free of her cold confinement and fell uncarimonaly on her back before it. Chara screwed her eyes shut, her body unready and unwilling to work properly as the last of her newfound adrenaline left her system, leaving her Completely and utterly exhausted. Muscles sore and burning from her intense escape from what she could only assume to be a snow puff, Chara lay there for a moment. The only sounds filling the otherwise quiet atmosphere coming from herself, or more accurately her breathing. As much as Chara would (and could) stay there all day she had things two do, one being sitting up.

so, With one last determined puff breath Chara attempted to lift her body up.

Easier said than done.

For once, Chara found herself actually regretting her decision to not be lazy; Everything felt both cold and on fire at the same time, and The pain in her abdomen was akin to falling off of a tree and managing to land on every single branch before reaching the ground. It almost felt like-

_ Like someone had cut her in half with a chainsaw _

Chara’s muscles immediately went lax as she lay back on the ground making a nose that was somewhere in between a painful groan and a lackluster laugh, one that would be accompanied by a hiss of pain a second later. Chara begrudgingly opened her eyes, (a task that took much more effort than it probably should have) only to shut them immediately at the sheer intensity of blinding white that greeted them. Yep, that was snow all right. she was definitely somewhere around Snowdin, theory confirmed!

Content with the new knowledge of not being dead, Chara decided that now would be as good a time as any to begin organizing her thoughts. She would rather than do it now then when rei inevitably found her, forcing her to make an excuse on the spot (a skill she had plenty of time to practice), unfortunately asriel was relatively good at seeing through her bullshit, so a ‘hey rei, I decided to take a nap out in the middle of nowhere’ accompanied by a pun that she definitely overused wouldn’t exactly  _ cut _ it

Chara opened her eyes once again, slowly this time as to adjust to the light. It was no surprise that something was clearly wrong, after all this was the first time she had woken somewhere that wasn’t her room, and after a reset no less!

_ Oh, and the physical pain, that was new too _

Taking a better look at her surroundings, Chara was happy to report that She wasn’t lying down on the path, so there was no rush to move from her relatively comfortable position. or the threat of, you know, getting stepped on. in front of her lay the remains of the snow puff she had previously broken out of. Admittedly a bit disappointed she had wrecked it, she had no doubts that one of the dogs that inhabited the small town would eventually come across it and make a new snow puff out of the remains of the one she had destroyed.

Besides her was the bridge that led across the very inconvenient chassum and the dysfunctional barricade that she and her brother had constructed a while back. Knowing that she was somewhere close to her sentry station helped calm her nerves slightly, until she realized she was going to come face-to-snout with her brother pretty soon, and in all honesty, explaining why she was lying in the snow to rei was just about last on her list of things she wanted to do right now. 

  
  


With that thought filling her with newfound motivation, Chara Began her second attempt at sitting up. Slowly this time, as to put as little pressure as possible on her already strained muscles 

“You alright there buddy?.”

Honestly Chara was beginning to Believe at this point the universe just had it out for her, ‘cause no matter the timeline she always seemed to end up in bad situations, like the one she was in right now for example! 

_ rei was right, she really was a bad luck charm  _

The whole  _ sitting up slowly _ shtick went right out the window as Chara froze like a deer in headlights. She didn’t immediately recognize this particular monster's voice, which was a bad sign considering she knew almost everybody in snowdin.

So either A, she had never met this monster before and her luck was really just that terrible, which at this point, she put it past herself. or B, her ears were clogged with snow. And for the record, she was really hoping for option B

It seemed as luck truly was not on her side as Chara turned her attention to the offending monster. He was short, that was for sure, but would probably still be a good half-head taller than her if they stood back-to-back. He was sporting a blue hoodie over a white t-shirt, And was wearing what looked to be black sweat shorts, which were adorned with a white stripe down the sides. much like herself, he didn’t seem to care a ton about his appearance (if his pink slippers were anything to go by). 

That, along with the fact that he was a skeleton.

Wait, a Skeleton?

~~_ Like san- _ ~~

“-‘Cause You're looking kinda,  _ chilled to the bone. _ ” 

_ Oh, so he was a comedian, huh? _

The skeleton must have noticed Chara smirk and raised a challenging eyebrow at the use of a pun, as his permanent grin grew more laid-back and less forced. 

leaning back on his heels and settling into a more comfortable position, Said skeleton then took a hand out of his hoodie pocket and extended it towards her. Chara, immediately caching on, grabbed his hand for support, and hastily picked herself up so that she was standings before him, only to find that she was indeed correct in her assumption that he was taller than her, much to her dismay. 

“Heh,” Chara huffed, “well, your  _ snow _ one to talk, aren’t you?” She shot back 

the monster, who clearly hadn’t been expecting the use of a pun, looked slightly bewildered for a moment before leaning back and stuffing his hands into the pockets of his hoodie, clearly grateful for the more comedic direction the otherwise awkward encounter was going.

“Heh, that’s a good one” he chuckled, “i'll have to remember that one for later” 

“Anyways, I’m sans, sans the skeleton” he explained as he took a hand out of his hoodie pocket and extended it towards her, in what Chara realized was a painful familiar gesture.

_ ‘They couldn’t be the same, right?’  _ Chara reasoned with herself 'maybe there relatives, or sans is just a really common name for skeletons to have’ Chara inwardly snorted _‘yeah, fat chance’_ she thought _‘that’s about as likely as asriel making a pun’_

Still, it wouldn’t exactly explain why the  _ king _ of all people would go ahead and take a leisurely stroll in snowdin of all places.

_ But... _

_ ‘Bud?’ _

_ ‘Buddy?’ _

“- _ buddy _ , you alright?” 

A hand lazy waving in front of her face snapped Chara back to reality. blinking a few times to get her bearings Chara did the first thing that came to mind when things like this happened 

Witch usually involved making an awful excuse accompanied by an even worse pun

“Oh, yeah sorry, just got a little  _ rattled _ there” she hastily explained to the monster in front of her “you know,  _ rattled _ ,  _ like bones _ ?” She offered, inwardly cringing as she nervously scratched the back of her neck through her hoodie. Admittedly, Not her best pun, but It’s not like she needed him to completely buy it. it would only need to get him to Believe that she was somewhat _‘alright’_ for the time being.

Or ‘alright’ as she could be until she inevitably had another one of her  _ episodes  _ again __

In truth, Chara wasn’t alright, in fact she was downright panicking trying to desperately peace together excuses with nothing more than her own determination. None of it showed though, after all, she’s had a lot of practice when it came down to lying about her mental state. 

like she thought, Sans #2 didn't exactly look convinced by her excuse, but fortunately for Chara, decided not to press any further. “Heh, that’s good” #2 replied. Notably trying,  _ and falling _ to keep the note of panic out of his voice. 

despite not actually being ‘sans’, Chara had a feeling that he was just as perceptive as the king was.

“Well, anyways… you’re human right?” #2 tentatively asked, as if he was  ~~ almost hoping ~~ half expecting her to say no.

“Heh yep, that’s me” Chara responded, thoroughly done with her… whatever it was. deciding to humor him for a bit she took a step back in order to take an over dramatic bow “Chara, Chara the human”

Now it was #2’s turn to dissociate as his eye-lights disappeared into his sockets, leaving nothing but an unsettling void behind. His ever present grin turned into more of a grimace and He looked as if he was trying to remember something, or rather that he Already remembered something and was busy trying to make sense of it.

But all to soon the look was gone, replaced by his easygoing grin and eye-lights witch had since reappeared (although they were nothing more pinpricks in the back of his sockets, and looked almost forced)

By the look on his face, he must have realized that he had been caught and hastily tried to explain himself “heh sorry there pal” Sans #2 chuckled, “must’ve gotten lost in my  _ skull  _ for a second there”

Wow. And she thought she was good at acting. 

~~_ If it wasn’t for the fact that she had recognized the expression he had made in the first place, he might’ve even convinced her that he was fine. _ ~~

“Well anyways” she started, kicking halfheartedly at the snow covered ground “I 

haven’t seen you around snowdin before, you new here?” What Chara really wanted to know was, are you related to the king, but asking ‘hey, you're a skeleton, the king is a skeleton, not to be racist or anything, but are you two related?’ Didn't exactly seem like the best course of action.

~~_ And she n e e d e d to know if this monster wasn’t sans and by some miracle, was just a skeleton that looked like him, one that she had just never met before. _ ~~

~~_ But it seemed less and less likely every second  _ ~~

“Uh actually no” he replied “me and my bro moved in a while back, actually, I think that’s him over there” despite his  _ cool  _ exterior, blue tinted beads of sweat ran down his skull, reminiscent of his internal turmoil.

To say sans was panicking was an understatement, in all honesty he was terrified. Nothing like this had ever even crossed his mind as a possibility, and he had his doubts that something like this was even supposed to happen in the first place.

Sans hadn’t always known the outcomes of just about everything that happened, (or was going to happen) in the underground, but thanks to his scientific background, he had become quite knowledgeable when it came to the timelines and possibilities of his world. Which meant that he would also be the first to find out if something was ever to go wrong, and as far as Sans was concerned, this situation was indeed, very wrong.

After all, instead of waking up to his brother shouting at him to ‘STOP BEING A LAZYBONES’, (nevermind the fact that he wasn’t even supposed to wake up in the first place) he found himself an undetermined amount of time before frisk had fallen, face to face with a human he didn’t recognize. (Or more correctly,  _ did _ recognize because she was  _ dead _ , and had been for awhile). and completely out of ideas about how any of this could have happened in the first place.

_ It also didn’t help that ‘Not-Chara’ seemed to see straight through him, which only served to make him more uneasy  _

Said human turned to look in the same direction as he did, probably looking for his aforementioned brother. Honestly, Sans didn’t actually remember where (or more accurately  _ when _ ) he was, it seemed like  _ not-Chara _ had appeared before frisk fell, but reliving the same day over and over again had the side effect of making one prone to forget the past. Or maybe Sans just had alzheimers, who knew?

“SANS! THERE YOU ARE!” Came a booming voice from the tree line. Semi-thankful for the intrusion of his thoughts, Sans glanced up to look at his little, although much taller, Brother. 

The new skeleton strode into the clearing, sporting his battle body as well as his trademark red scarf. He wasn’t exactly happy if his unamused/annoyed expression was anything to go by. Witch kind sucked for sans seeing as he had no idea what he did thanks to his non-Existent alzheimers

“Hey paps, what’s up?” He asked as nonchalantly as possible, while pointedly ignoring the human and her questioning gaze that stood little bit behind him.

“YOU KNOW WHAT’S UP BROTHER,” Papyrus accused, crossing his arms to convey that he was in fact, not pleased. “IT'S BEEN NEARLY 24 HOURS SINCE YOU RECALIBRATED YOUR PUZZLES!” He exclaimed, stating it like it was normal to ‘recalibrate’ puzzles every five hours.

_ A week. A full week before frisk fell _ . If Sans’s eye-lights shrunk at this realization Papyrus took little to no notice, or just didn’t comment on it 

  
  


_ That didn’t stop Sans from being able to feel the red gaze at the back of his skull. He knew that she read him as easily as a book as he felt a wave of checking magic wash over him. _

“I’m, uh, Pretty sure that’s normal?” Came a voice from behind him.  _ Not-Chara  _ stepped out from behind him and Sans had never felt so thankful for the appearance of a human 

“NORMAL?” Papyrus raised his gloved hands in exasperation. “WHAT IF A HUMAN COMES THROUGH HEAR, FRIEND OF SANS THAT I HAVE NEVER MET BEFORE? THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAS TO BE READY!”

“Hey bro look, a human.” Sans said as he lazily gestured to  _ not-Chara _ , who lazy waved at his brother from behind him.

It will never cease to amaze him just how fast Papyrus could change his demeanor as all of his previous irritation was immediately replaced with literal sparkles in his otherwise empty sockets “GASP, SANS IS THAT A HUMAN?” He whispered, in an unsuccessful attempt to keep his voice down.

“Yeah.” 

“OH MY GOD!!!, SANS I FINALLY DID IT!!” Papyrus yelled, turning his attention back to the shorter of the two. 

“UNDYNE WILL…” 

“I'M GONNA…” 

“I'LL BE SO…” 

“POPULAR!!! POPULAR!!! POPULAR!!!” 

Sans raised a non-existent eyebrow as his brother’s ramblings made less and less sense. In all honesty, he usually wouldn’t have done something that could potentially mess up the timeline like this, but seeing as  _ not-Chara _ had already made her presence known to papyrus, it wasn’t like much harm could actually be done. Besides, the two were bound to meet sooner or later, and it was worth it to see the smile on his brothers face 

~~_ Even if it wouldn’t last long _ ~~

“AHEM HUMAN! YOU SHALL NOT PASS THIS AREA” Papyrus, with the excitement out of his system explained to the human he was so determined to capture. “I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL STOP YOU!”

“I WILL THEN CAPTURE YOU, YOU WILL BE DELIVERED TO THE CAPITAL…” 

“THEN...” Papyrus trailed off, finally taking a glance at  _ not _ _ -Chara  _ as she shuffled around nervously in her spot. Papyrus must have seen something that Sans didn’t, which wasn’t too far fetched seeing as his attention wasn’t focused on the human like papyrus’s was.

“Human, are you ok?” He asked, his voice low and full of worry as he looked over  _ not-Chara _ . Seemingly contemplating something. “You look… sad...”

Sans quirked a brow, it wasn’t like his brother to use his lower voice (even if it really wasn’t that low). Heck, even a couple timelines ago when he had his heart-to-heart (or more accurately,  _ soul-to-soul _ ) with frisk, he hadn’t sounded as worried as he did now. And for him to comment on the fact that she looked  _ sad  _ of all things was definitely new.

~~_ It was almost like he was expecting a different human to be standing before him, a kid in a blue striped sweater rather than the brunette in the green hoodie. _ ~~

  
  
  


But all too soon the moment was gone and Papyrus was back to addressing  _ not-Chara _ with just as much enthusiasm as before (who was thankfully no longing burning holes in the back of his skull with her stare)

“ITS OKAY, HUMAN!” Papyrus assured her “YOU MAY BE SAD NOW, BUT MY PUZZLES WILL CHEER YOU UP IN NO TIME!” He declared “FOR UNLIKE MY LAZY BROTHER, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM A MASTER OF WITTY JOKES AND CLEVER JABS!” ‘ _ Ouch’  _ “I'M SURE WITH MY UNMATCHED PUZZLE SKILLS AND GREAT SENSE OF HUMOR, YOU WILL SOON BE HAVING JUST AS MUCH FUN AS THE REST OF US! NYEH HEH HEH HEH!” 

The taller of the two then spun on his heel and walked back to the direction he came from, presumably to go set up his puzzles. Sans could still hear his enthusiastic laughter in the distance long after he was out of sight.

In all honesty, Sans felt a little uncomfortable with the silence that followed after. It was usually around this time that he would ask the human, frisk, to appear to his brother, but since that was already done, he didn’t have much to say.

Deciding to take a look at Chara’s expression, Sans expected to see some sort of evident confusion written on her face that papyrus had mistaken for sadness. Sans however, didn’t expect to come face to face with the complex mix of emotions only expressed by those who had just figured out that something was terribly, terribly wrong.

he was right about one thing,

All the denial that she had kindled over the past couple minutes resurfaced and brought a crushing weight with it. She wasn’t supposed to be here,  _ she wasn’t supposed to be here _ . Here with people she recognized but didn’t know, here with her friends and family who she had watched die. 

but that wasn’t the thing that had fully struck her with the weight of the situation, no.

  
  


It was the realisation that Chara Dreamurr,

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


was no longer the anomaly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright here we go! This is going to be a long-ass story so stick with me here.
> 
> Before you go and comment I should mention that this version of storyshift is a little different.
> 
> AKA it focuses a lot more on why Chara is alive in the underground and what it means for her and the rest of monster-kind. Rest assured, you will get a more in depth explanation in the future, although if I’m being honest, it really isn’t that difficult to figure out.
> 
> Anyways, I’ll probably end up posting more sooner rather than later, just because I’m in kinda a writing mood right now (big surprise, I know)
> 
> So until then!  
> -Yours truly
> 
> UPDATE: I’m sorry for the amount of time it’s taking me to post the next chapter. I edited this chapter a ton because I didn’t like the more serious note it took on. I see both Chara and Sans being the type of people to use laughter to hide their grief, much like they do in the original undertale, so more puns!
> 
> I also thought that I made sans to laidback, Chara to nervous, and Papyrus to oblivious. I don’t want this story to rely solely on Chara to make it unique, so I changed a lot a bit of dialogue.
> 
> Point is, when I first posted this, I had no idea where I was going to go with it, but now that I have some idea for what I’m going to do I realized that this chapter wasn’t going to work the way it was
> 
> That said, I am happy with it (for now), so I probably won’t edit this chapter again. I’ll try and post the next chapter sooner rather than later, so if you can bear with me until then, thanks.
> 
> Again, sorry for the delay, but thanks for sticking around none the less.  
> -sincerely (again)  
> Yours truly~


	2. -Somewhere else-

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans and Chara attempt to have a heart to heart, but they both suck at feelings and magic skeletons don’t have human organs.

A long time ago when monsters roamed the surface, they would whisper their wishes to the stars in the sky. It was said that If you hoped with all your heart, your wish would come true. 

Now, all that’s left to wish upon are these sparkling crystals on the ceiling…

Chara sighed, kicking her legs in frustration, namely at herself as she looked up at the cave ceiling she had always despised. It had always seemed ridiculous to her that the only real thing the monsters down here had wanted was to see the stars, something she had always taken for granted up on the surface. it had always seemed like the most cruel thing that any human could do and being in this room had always filled her with disdain for humanity, and by proxy, herself. 

She half smiled at that. 

It felt like such a long time ago, that she had despised humanity above all else. Now, she rarely ever gave the surface world the time of day. Preferring to think about trivial things, like what’s for dinner tonight, or if asriel had gotten anywhere with his royal guard training, because she knew that  _ they _ would have hated that she was allowed to have these thoughts.

She still hated humanity, that had never changed, though it was for completely unrelated reasons.

Chara looked up at the ‘stars’ again, tracing made up constellations with her gaze as she begrudgingly recalled the past few minutes. 

  
  


_ Sans was saying something to her, but she filtered it out. It didn’t matter, he wasn’t her Sans, the one who had gone against all odds and saved her. She briefly felt a bony hand lay on her shoulder before that too, was filtered out.  _

_ Nothing made sense and she doubted it ever would again. Everything she had built herself up to be, every truth she had hated and accepted,  _ **_every memory of dying in perturbed detail._ ** _ Stopped mattering. _

_ She needed to leave _

_ She needed to be far away from here _

~~_ Wherever here was _ ~~

_ It didn’t matter  _

_ she just had to FLEE _

_ Witch is how she ended up here. _

Chara sighed sitting up and tucking her knees into her chest as she gazed at the castle in the distance. She briefly wondered who ran the kingdom now that she knew sans was living in snowdin before brushing away the idea. She had a feeling she wouldn’t want to know the answer anyways.

The sound of warping broke her out of her thoughts and she debated turning around to see who had used a shortcut. As far as Chara was concerned she was the only one with the ability, but she already had her suspicions about the monster behind her if the sent of snow and pine was anything to go by.

“I’m assuming you didn’t just come here to make me feel better” she told the darkness behind her. There was a brief moment of no response witch almost had her second guessing herself before a shuffling sound came from behind her

“Was it that obvious?” He asked, stepping out into the limited light of the clearing. Chara glanced back at him, noticing the way his zygomatic bones glowed ever so slightly with blue magic,  _ ‘the monster equivalent of flushing’  _

“No,” she said turning her attention back to the crystals that littered the cave ceiling “I’m just good at reading people”

another moment of hesitation passed before Sans walked over to her and sat down besides her. He didn’t say anything more and neither did Chara, the two finding the cave roof and the stones embedded in it more interesting. 

Truth be told, She didn’t exactly know how long she sat there, she had, understandably, a lot she wanted to say, but no idea where to begin, or even if she should begin at all. 

Chara sighed, lowering her gaze as she broke the silence, and hopefully the tension along with it

“So restets, huh?”

“How-“ Sans sputtered, making no attempt to conceal the fact that she caught him off guard. If this was  _ her _ Sans, the one she knew, then Chara would have never let him live it down, then again, if she was ever with her sans in waterfall, she probably wouldn’t be telling him about the power of rewinding time in the first place.

“That expression you’re making.” Chara explained, pointedly dropping his gaze, opting to look anywhere else instead. “It’s the expression of someone who’s seen their brother’s dust.” She finished quietly.

Chara wasn’t exactly sure what she was expecting Sans to do, he didn’t seem like the type to get angry or sad easily, but as the silence between them went on for longer and longer Chara found herself wondering if she had made a mistake by telling him 

“Heh,” Sans chuckled, breaking the silence missing that Chara was certain would have drove her insane if it had lasted a moment longer “guess you really are good at reading people” 

“Not really,” she smiled, still avoiding looking in his eyes- or eye-sockets to be precise “I, uh, saw your stats, remember?” She muttered sheepishly 

“Well that’s reassuring” 

Chara let out a breathy laugh, caching the slight note of sarcasm in his voice, and despite himself, Sans found himself smiling at his joke-that-wasn’t-really-a-joke with her. But soon the moment faded and the two were once again reminded of the situation at hand

“You're not from here, but you recognized me anyway” sans stated, any trace of amusement in his tone gone “… why?” 

To Sans’s surprise she actually laughed at that “actually it’s because you’re king where I’m from” she explained.

“Me? King?” He asked like he needed confirmation, which honestly wasn’t too far from the truth “Kinda hard to believe I’d have any sort of important job, I’m much too lazy for that kinda thing, you know?”

“Yeah…” She smiled, although Sans could clearly tell that it wasn’t a happy one “Guess I do…”

Sans sighed and looked back up at the rocky ceiling of the wishing room. If he was being honest, it was probably his favorite place in the hole underground, if you didn’t count his bed, house, or any other prime napping spot that is. The moment of silence however, came to a close when this time Chara, broke the silence with a question of her own

“You knew me to, or at least you knew my name.” Well he supposed it was more of a statement than a question, but eh, close enough.

“Yeah… guess I did” Sans replied, hopeful that the lack of information in his response would convince the human not to pry. 

It wasn’t like it was much of a secret, just about every monster in the underground knew about the royal children, but even then, how are you supposed to tell someone that they're dead. The two already had enough of their plates, and considering how Chara reacted to Papyrus telling her that he was going to try and capture her, Sans really didn’t think that she would want to know about her demise. 

For the first time during the conversation Chara turned to look at him, with a raised brow nonetheless. “Care to elaborate, comedian?” She asked, immediately realizing he was holding information from her. 

despite himself Sans snorted “Comedian?” He asked, tilting his skull in question “Does this mean you think I’m  _ humurous _ ?” 

Chara was certain that if he had brows, he would be wiggling them 

“It means I think you’re hilariously un _ -punny”  _ she shot back, giving his arm a quick punch for effect 

Sans chuckled at that, and she found herself looking at him with a bemused smile “Eh, better than nothing” he admitted, rubbing the spot on his shoulder that she knew for a fact didn’t hurt “I’ll take it”

His smile fell into more of a grimace as he pointedly avoided her gaze, Chara looking away as her smirk dropped as well “So you really have no idea how you got here, huh?” Ouch, was it really that obvious, or was she just really that bad at hiding her panic 

“Can't say I do. one moment I was playing a  _ knife _ game of tag, and the next I was sleeping in a snow-puff” Chara replied, noticing the way Sans winced when she mentioned her rather anticlimactic fight.

“Well that sounds familiar…” he muttered, opting to scratch the back of his spine than elaborate 

“The snow-puff part? or the getting stabbed part?” Chara asked quizzically 

“Heh” Sans smiled at that but it didn’t reach his sockets 

Dropping it almost immediately, the lighter atmosphere returned to tension and dread as he spoke “We’re, uh, about a week before frisk fell, or falls.” 

“Don’t mean to be rude, but, uh, how exactly does that tie in with me being here?” Chara asked, raising an eyebrow as to prove her point

Sans sighed and she could tell that he really didn’t want to explain why, making her feel a little bad for asking “Well, from what I understand you disrupted a genocide run, meaning…”

“…Meaning the kid didn’t get to finish the first time and is probably gonna try and do it again.” She finished. 

Sans winced and if Chara didn’t feel bad before she definitely did now “Yep, spot on”

She looked at him deadpan for a few moments, making her skeleton companion rather uncomfortable if the blue-tinted beads of sweat running down his skull were anything to go by. His gaze remained on her, even though his eye-lights slightly waved and his brow-bone creased with worry.

Chara finally let out an exasperated laugh, albeit not a happy one as she leaned back and tilted her face up towards the ceiling of the wishing room. Sans wasn’t quite sure what to do at the moment, especially not with that bomb that was practically dropped on her out of nowhere. 

“Wow, this Sucks” Chara stated, finding herself blown away by the absurdity of the situation and by just how bad her luck really was

“Heh, yep” sans chuckled, a little grateful that the silence didn’t drag on like last time “We’re officially screwed in every witch way from Sunday with whipped cream and a sans shaped cherry on top” 

Chara laughed at that flopping backwards until she was lying on the ground beneath her as a comfortable quiet fell over the two again

“I might have an idea about how to get you back” Sans said, caching Chara’s attention “it’s a bit of a long shot but it Might work”

Chara didn’t immediately answer him, more focused on sitting back up and picking half-heartedly at the grass beneath her and thus Keeping her eyes off of the skeleton. 

“Hate to break it to you partner, but i doubt There's much for me to go back to” 

_ ‘Partner?’  _

“Why’s that?” Chara gave him a look, one that looked suspiciously similar to the ‘are you serious’ expression his brother made whenever sans made a particularly terrible pun “I mean, you already broke one timeline, who's to say you didn’t break yours when you traveled here”

The human turned away from him, letting out a huff of amusement as she contemplated his answer “I mean, I guess I am developing a bit of a track recorded when it comes to breaking timelines…” she drifted off 

“it’s worth a shot, right?”

Sans smiled in confirmation, or rather smiled more then what his already permanent grin permitted him to “I think anything is at this”-

“Sans, is that you!?” An armor clad monster asked the seemingly empty space that she was coming across “it better not be, or your non-existent ass is grass!” She yelled into the darkness 

Turning towards the wishing room where she assumed the voices had come from, Undine steadily navigated the rocky terrain. If she was being honest (witch she was) Undine had walked along the poorly built path so many times that she could practically do it with her eyes closed, which was fortunate because waterfall was known for its rather dark corridors.

To her surprise however, when the fish monster finally reached the wishing room, it was completely empty, like no one had been there in the first place. Undine let out a frustrated huff as she shook her head and spun on her heel, filled with newfound determination to finish her patrol without any more unnecessary distractions.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


...Missing the lingering scent of pine that resonated from the shortcut used by the skeleton who sat there only moments ago.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter out. I initially wanted to do it sooner rather than later, but I was busy cleaning up chapter 1 because I wasn’t happy with it, 
> 
> that said, if you haven’t read the re- wright of chapter 1 I would suggest doing so because I’m honestly much more happy with how it came out.
> 
> Ether way, we’re finally done with what was arguably just a really extensive prologue. I promise in next chapter we’ll get to see more of the multiverse, I mean this is called Storyverse for a reason.
> 
> Honestly, I don’t know what else to put here other than Stay Safe,  
>  -yours truly~


	3. -actually Somewhere else-

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A not-so brief trip to the doodle sphere

Somewhere in the multiverse, a brown claud skeleton shuffled through a multitude of loose papers. An unlikely spectacle for the protector of AU’s of all people to exhibit, but not a totally unexpected occurrence. 

In truth, ink never cared much about where exactly the AU’s that inhabited the doodle sphere came from. Sure he inspired authors and artists of all shapes and sizes to create their own stories and leave their mark on the multiverse in their own unique way, but who exactly made the universes was never really a concern for him. At least, not until now.

He paused, rubbing his chin while seaming lost in thought. While new AU’s weren’t an uncommon occurrence by any means, the amount that seemed to appear out of nowhere was. Not to mention, the fact that he couldn’t recall any creator that could have made them only added to their mystery. And sure while ink was prone to forget, well… just about everything really, the creators of the universes he dedicated his life to protecting just wasn’t something that slipped his mind like everything else did.

So if a ton of random universes appear, and no creator (as far as he knew) was involved in their making…

“Then who…” ink muttered under his breath.

“INK!”

At the distressed call of his name ink turned his head just in time to collide skulls with a similar-looking skeleton who, in his haste teleporting to the doodle sphere, rammed face first into the multiverses defender. Knocking the two (and the AU’s in inks grasp) askew

Ink let out a strained groan of pain, rubbing his now sore skull. “Ugh… Dream?” 

Of course, this wasn’t the first time that dream had barged into Ink’s home unannounced, and knowing the short skelly, it probably wouldn’t be the last time either. See, dream had a tendency to be a bit over dramatic and this time was clearly no exception. 

“Ink!” The shorter of the two huffed, clearly out of breath and most likely exhausted from the last-minute trip to the Doodle Sphere “Thank goodness you're here, I felt something terrible happen and- who is that?”

Confused by his abrupt change in demeanor, Ink followed the Guardian’s line of sight which (unsurprisingly) stopped at an unfamiliar human who was lying unconscious only a little ways away from them, Albeit one who ink didn’t recognize

“I, uh… don’t know?” He admitted rather sheepishly. Dream however wasn’t listening, more focused on the intruder, who as far as ink knew (or remembered rather), pretty much appeared out of nowhere. 

In all honesty, Ink didn’t have the best memory, in fact he probably had the worst memory out of all the Sans’s in the multiverse. He seemingly forgot random things at what was usually the least opportune times, and without any real cure, writing all of his thoughts down somewhere easily accessible so he could look at them later on was the best compromise so far.

So it really shouldn’t have been much of a surprise to Dream that Ink had absolutely no memory of the human who was currently occupying the floor of the doodlespere, despite it being one of the many places in the multiverse that didn’t actually have gravity or stable ground.

Dream strode over to the new arrival from his place by ink. From what little he knew about humans, it would probably be a little while till they woke up and Ink could determine which au they came from, and Dream  _ was  _ curious about this human…

_ ‘Surely the multiverse can wait for a little while longer’... _

Now Standing above her, Dream could easily tell that the human wasn’t a Frisk, she was very clearly female and had pale skin, a contrast to the darker tones and the gender-fluid figures the few Frisks that he’d met seemed to share. She wasn’t a Chara either, unless this Chara’s rosy cheeks had been replaced by colorful… stains?

Just below her eyes was a multicolored pattern that Dream thought looked suspiciously similar to that of watercolors (he only recognized them because ink seemed to have a habit of being very messy when it came to water- based paints) they took up a large amount of her face and looked to a mixture of both smudged and splattered on. Looking closer, He realized that almost all of her visible skin was accompanied by one or two of these strange markings, each one varying in size, placement and color 

The Guardian knelt down next to her, gently poking her cheek to see if any of the pigment would come off on his phalanges, and was immediately reminded of Ink. Although he supposed that wasn’t too surprising, after all, The stains did hold some kind of resemblance to the splotch of black ink on his friend's skull, 

In fact, Now that he was looking, most of her outfit held striking similarities to that of the protector of AU’s. They both had overalls, although hers were in the form of a skirt that almost reached her knees rather than the long bell-bottom pants. Both of them sported similar small brown jackets over white shirts, albeit different designs. The two even had the same open-toed socks and tan-faded scarf! (Although hers was much shorter).

“Hey ink, don’t you think she looks a bit like you?” He asked, turning to the artistic skeleton that had come up from behind him

Ink quizzically racked his gaze over the human “Yeah… she I guess she kinda does” he admitted

“You don’t remember where she came from, right?” Ink turned to the short Guardian, who was rubbing his chin, seemingly lost in thought. 

Ink shook his head “nope, no idea” Dream’s brow furrowed, an expression he made whenever he was trying to piece something together.

“Well maybe…” he drifted off, eye sockets narrowing as ink watched him contemplate. He didn’t bother to add his own input into the more one-sided conversation (not that the Guardian would mind)

Dream gasped, his demeanor doing a complete one-80 “Maybe she was made by the creators to help you defend the multiverse!” Ink stopped at that, tilting his skull quizzically at his friend

  
  
  


_ ‘What-‘ _

  
  


“You mean like… a partner?” He asked dumbfounded 

“Yes!” Dream exclaimed, clearly thrilled by the idea of a new outcode, shot Ink an excited smile. “It would explain why she looks so much like you and why she appeared out of nowhere” 

Ink… didn’t know what to make of that. Sure being in the doodle sphere all day did get somewhat boring, and fighting error did get tedious as he wasn’t always evenly matched with the destroyer, but he’d never thought that he’d need someone else to help him defend the multiverse.

But then again, it wasn’t all bad. After all, it had been awhile since the creators had introduced a new outcode, not to mention, having a partner could be a great way for ink to chase away unwanted boredom and finally get level with error. Besides, If she was anything like him she would have a love for art and creativity, and ink was getting tired of being the only one in the multiverse that would take time out of his (totally real and not just-now fabricated) Schedule

“Huh…” he muttered, blinking a few times as he thoughtfully rubbed his chin.

“Won’t this be great!?!” Dream exclaimed, not bothering to keep his voice or excitement down “we could introduce her to blue, it’d be great to have another member of the star sans’s! …although we're going to have to come up with a new name…”

Unlike Dream who was gushing about potential names for the little band of outcodes (+1 incode) ink was more focused on the fact that his potential-partner was slowly waking up. In an attempt to get her up faster, (that or his lack of impulse control, he couldn’t tell) Ink kicked _gently nudged_ her with his bare foot. 

The human let out some sort of strained grumble at the contact, and rolled over to the opposite side, ‘ _ well that wasn’t what I Wanted her to do’  _ he thought to no one in particular as Dream turned his attention back to  _ his  _ partner. 

the human in question shifted a couple more times in her not-sleep, a tell tale sign that she would regain consciousness, Hopefully sooner rather than later because Ink’s impatience was really getting to him. 

As if the creators heard his  _ prayer-but-not-really _ his potential partner grumbled a bit before unenthusiastically waking up, witch was good timing as Ink was about ready to poke her again with his foot. 

as she begrudgingly sat up and rubbed her eyes the human came face to skull with the two skeletons above her. One giving her a quizzical glance and the other watching in what could almost be described as awe. In all honesty she couldn’t really remember how she ended up unconscious before two skeletons, which was weird considering she’d never had memory-loss problems before.

Chalking it up to, well, nothing really, she did what any normal person would do in her situation.

“Who are you?” She asked

Ok, scratch that, maybe not what any normal person would do, but last time she checked, she didn’t exactly fit under the category of normal.

Putting the two skeletons out of thought for the moment, the human briefly looked around at her surroundings in an attempt to gauge where she was. The first thing she noticed was the sky, or, rather, the distinct lack of one. In fact, now that she was looking, there was a lack of just about everything (including things that all AUs tend to have, like the ground, or gravity) in its place, however, was a golden void, empty save for papers strung to the non-existent ceiling and the three who were in it.

this sight might have been incredibly jarring for literally anybody else but for someone like her…

_ ‘Yeah, maybe the hole ‘normal person’ thing was more than ‘a bit of a long shot’ _

“Um, are you alright?” Someone asked

just now realizing that one of the two unfamiliar skeletons had been talking to her the entire time, she turned her attention back to them “I’m, sorry could you please repeat that, I wasn’t paying attention” She asked, watching as a look of mild discomfort/worry passed over the skeleton with the golden crown 

“I- i just-“ the skeleton, (who she had since dubbed Goldie _ ) _ sputtered 

“I’m Ink!” The skeleton opposite to him interrupted. Taking her request to heart much to Goldie's dismay.

“Oh, well I’m Paint!” She declared, Deciding that ‘Ink’ operated at a much more preferable pace then Goldie did “hey! We’re both named after artistic mediums,” She realized “pretty neat, huh?”.

“I mean it does match the stains on your face” Ink pointed out, extending his arm to help the new outcode to her feet. “I think it’s fitting”.

“I like your brush, by the way!” 

“Oh you mean broomie?”

“broomie?”

“Yep, broomie!”

Dream watched the two converse in what could almost be described as awe, despite being fairly socal, this was the first time he’d seen Ink hit it off with someone as quickly as he did now. Even so he had to admit he was a little disappointed, after all, ‘Paint’ had been distracted almost immediately after she woke up, but it wasn’t like he wouldn’t have time to get to know the new outcode in the future.

Speaking of outcodes…

“Um… Ink, I don't mean to intrude, but I’m afraid something serious has come up in the multiverse” Dream interrupted, feeling slightly self conscious with the two sets of eyes (or eye-lights in Ink’s case) on him “it’s why I came here in the first place…?” He tried at Ink’s confused expression.

“Oh that!” Ink exclaimed, snapping his pangolins in realization. “I had something I wanted to show you to!” 

Turning his attention to the mass assortment of papers that represented the AUs of the multiverse ink flipped through a couple of them in an attempt to find the ones he was looking for 

“Well, uh…” Paint started turning her attention back to Dream “it’s been fun, but I kinda gotta head back to the cove” she explained, much to dreams confusion “you know, feed my cat, make sure Glitch doesn’t destroy anything...” 

Taking out one of the two pens that were situated behind her back (much like Ink’s broomie) she drew an oval shape out of ink on the non-existent ground of the doodle sphere before Dream could comment on it. “à plus tard!” She shouted before jumping in and disappearing from the doodle sphere.

“... was that, French?” Ink asked, abandoning his work in favor of looking back at a dumbfounded Dream. “Hey, where-“

Before he could get another word out, a portal, similar to the one Paint had drawn only moments ago appeared a little ways away from where the Outcode had warped from initially.

“Well that wasn’t supposed to happen” a confused Paint said to no one in particular as she emerged from the portal. Dream, who was too shocked to do much of anything. Barely comprehend the fact that Ink had tilted his skull quizzically and asked where she had gone.

“Actually, I have no idea” she muttered, biting the fingernail of her thumb in a mix of confusion and frustration. Seemingly satisfying enough for the protector to the multiverse, Ink merely shrugged and went back to the AUs he was rummaging through.

“...who, did you say you were again?” Dream asked, still slightly bewildered from the newest outcode’s disappearing act 

Paint turned to him, looking only half as confused as Dream felt “I’m Paint, the defender of AUs” she explained as if she didn’t understand why this question needed confirmation in the first place “you should ask Sunset or Glitch, they probably know my title better than me” 

Shoving whoever Sunset and Glitch were aside, Dream opened his mouth to ask more about Paint, only to be promptly interrupted by Ink, for the second time.

“Found it!” He called catching the attention of both Outcodes “turns out they were in this pile all along” 

“Ink, please” Dream gasped exasperated “there’s still something I have to tell you I-“

Dream stopped mid sentence as he looked at the AU his friend held out to him. The usual glowing-esk paper was accompanied with static and unorderly pixels that glitched in and out of existence at random. He had seen AUs that had looked ‘not quite right’ before, whether it was because they were under influence of one of the other Outcodes, or because they were ‘special’ (as ink liked to call it) like Xtale. but this one was the first one he’d seen that actually looked broken.

“How?” He breathed, unconsciously taking a step closer to the broken AU

“I know!” Ink exclaimed “and that’s not even the only one!” He turned around, grabbing a pile to show to Dream and Paint, who had gathered a little ways behind him “there all completely random as well” ink continued “some are entire AUs, others are just certain timelines, Some are super glitched out and others are only a little broken, Heck! Some of them are new AUs! New AUs Dream! And they all appeared out of nowhere!” 

Ink bent over, taking a minute to catch his breath as he finally finished his tangent “now” he huffed, picking himself back up “what did you want to tell me again?”

Dream paused, admittedly a bit unnerved by his friend’s abrupt change in demeanor

“I felt something earlier, before I came to the doodle Sphere” he started promptly ignoring Ink’s interested expression “there were so many distressed emotions all at once- all from different AUs as well!” He glanced around the doodle sphere, just now noticing that some of the papers that had been hanging were covered in varying degrees of static and misplaced pixels “I think I know why” he muttered softly.

“does this mean you can feel emotions like Sunset?” Paint asked. Anyone else might have found it a bit insensitive, but Dream was used to moments like these being ruined considering how often he hung around Ink. Dream was just about to ask about ‘Sunset’ but Ink beat him to the chase

“Who’s Sunset?” He asked 

“Oh she’s a friend of mine” she replied, Dream was starting to get the gist that there where more Outcodes that they didn’t know about “she’s about this tall, where dresses, she’s always got a hood up…” Paint explained, holding her hand up to about her chin to signify how tall ‘Sunset’ was 

“Oh, what’s she like?” Ink asked, getting off topic again 

“Actually she’s a bit like Goldie here” Paint replied, pointing to Dream for confirmation 

Ink looked between the two a couple times, and the shorter of the two felt his skull flush with magic “Goldie?” Ink chortled much to Dream’s dismay 

“I- that’s not-“ he sputtered, seemingly having an unnecessary amount of trouble getting a full sentence out

“I mean, his face is pretty gold” Ink pointed out, grinning as he turned to Paint, leaving Dream in flushed embarrassment “but really” he sighed turning to the glitched AUs that had been scattered about the doodle sphere “we should probably get this cleaned up before we try and figure out what’s going on”

“Ouais, that’s probably a good idea” Paint replied, following ink to the multitude of scattered papers, Dream tailing only a little ways behind “I should warn you though, I’m not exactly the most organized person”

“It’s ok” Dream assured her “Ink isn’t the most organized ether” 

“Wonder what gave you that impression, Goldie?” Ink shot back

“By the way you still haven’t given me your name, you know”

“Nah I like Goldie, keep calling him that”

“je ferai Ink”

“By the way, do you happen to speak French by chance?”

The three continued their halfhearted banter as they sorted through the doodle sphere, blissfully unaware of the heterochromia eye-lights that had been watching from the safety of the anti-void the entire time

_ ‘Oh nightmare’s gonna love this’ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So before we get super far into this story, I should mention that ‘Paint’ isn’t an original character of mine, in fact the concept of her has existed for a while, I just gave her a name and a new personality and design that wasn’t just ink sans but Chara. 
> 
> Seeing as there’s almost no stories that involve Ink-shift Chara (only art) I felt the need to give her a unique personality and different quirks than what ink has so we don’t just have two inks running around because as fun as that would be, I honestly don’t think the multiverse (or my sanity) could take that
> 
> I’ll draw Paint’s design out later, but until then you’re going to have to be stuck with my mediocre description, sorry.
> 
> Also please don’t expect updates this quick, truth is I just got a ton of motivation out of nowhere, so until that happens again I’ll stick to my update schedule that totally exists
> 
> Until next time  
>  -yours truly~
> 
> Ps. Can we make that a thing now?

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading,  
>  𝐒𝐓♢𝐑𝐘𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄


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